Tigerboy1966 1,428 Posted May 28, 2021 5 hours ago, sahaven111 said: 9 hours ago, Tigerboy1966 said: Looks as though Sokokurai will have his first sekitori promotion and his first sanyaku promotion in the same basho. The ghost of Mogi will be so proud. Sorry for my ignorance.. who is Mogi? The late stable cat. It should be "Mugi". My error: I got mixed up as "Moggy" is British slang for "cat". 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shumitto 418 Posted May 28, 2021 (edited) 7 hours ago, kawika said: who has the story about Koutokuzan? Even though I have been following him since his first basho (the name Jasper Kenneth called my attention) I know basically what has made the papers. He is half Filipino on his mother side, her name being Catherine (キャサリン), while the father is Japanese. He grew up in the Philippines until the age of 12, then moved to Japan. In Junior High he joined the baseball club, and entered sumo at age 15 without any prior experience. He first appeared in makushita aged 20, and has been closing in on sekitorihood since 2019, when first got a single digit makushita ranking. He is a hard-working pusher-thruster. His role model is Mitakeumi. He has said that so far his path has been very tough and of course he wants to do his own brand of sumo. Edited May 28, 2021 by shumitto adding "at" 3 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bookkeeper 4 Posted May 28, 2021 From this interview of kotokuzan's, it seems like he speaks English fairly well, although it was somewhat ambiguous in the article when they were translating/tidying up his quotes. Interesting to read as well that his mom sometimes feeds the heya with Filipino food. For some reason, I really did have it in my head that all they ate was chanko. Can anyone tell me how typical his length of stay at makushita was? Don't really know how to assess his long term prospects. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Seiyashi 4,072 Posted May 28, 2021 27 minutes ago, bookkeeper said: For some reason, I really did have it in my head that all they ate was chanko. Technically, anything eaten by sumo wrestlers is chanko, so you're not that far off... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shumitto 418 Posted May 28, 2021 1 hour ago, bookkeeper said: Can anyone tell me how typical his length of stay at makushita was? Don't really know how to assess his long term prospects. Based on my rather careless observations made over the last 15 years or so, I would dare say that 12 years in the lower divisions plus 6,5 since makushita debut put him on the slower end of the spectrum. But he is in peak age now so if he manages to stave off big injuries and keeps improving he is good for a long career as a sekitori. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kintamayama 44,856 Posted May 28, 2021 2 hours ago, shumitto said: Based on my rather careless observations made over the last 15 years or so, I would dare say that 12 years in the lower divisions plus 6,5 since makushita debut put him on the slower end of the spectrum. But he is in peak age now so if he manages to stave off big injuries and keeps improving he is good for a long career as a sekitori. Bad makekoshi. One hit wonder. We shall see. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shumitto 418 Posted May 28, 2021 18 minutes ago, Kintamayama said: Bad makekoshi. One hit wonder. We shall see. Long career is what I believe is possible (not likely) based on numbers alone, but I have a hunch that he will fare more like Wakanoshima or Asabenkei. But as you say, we shall see. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kaito 278 Posted May 29, 2021 From the matches I've seen, his style reminds me of Kotoyuki, and at least in the short term, I think he'll do fine. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites